Taking a look at the MartBids analysis tables for 2022, they paint a positive picture, with green arrows on all cattle categories.

Heavier cattle have seen the biggest increase. The price of heavier cattle generally tracks the beef price and we saw the trade peak in 2022 in early summer when slaughter-fit cattle became very scarce.

R3 grading bullocks hit a high of €5.61/kg in June 2022. This pulled the mart trade up as well and we saw some exceptional prices being paid for finished cattle in marts during the early summer months.

Factory agents flocked to marts to shore up supplies and big competition among the big three alongside wholesalers and smaller factories really drove the trade during the summer months.

On many occasions factory agents were paying way in excess of what cattle were worth to ordinary farmers to kill in marts than they were worth in factories. This pulled a lot of finished cattle back to mart rings.

Heifers

Looking at the 500kg+ heifer category we see that the top 33% of cattle were up 13c/kg or €78/head on a 600kg animal.

The average animal in this weight category was up 16c/kg in 2022. The bottom 33% were up 18c/kg.

This category would include a lot of dairy-cross animals, with factories hoovering up these supplies in marts during the summer months.

Bullocks

Bullocks saw a similar increase, with the average bullock over 500kg coming in 15c/kg higher or €90 head on a 600kg animal. This peak in prices in June set the scene for the rest of the year.

Weanlings

Moving to the weanling category, it was another positive year’s trading albeit not as good as the heavier cattle trade.

A healthy live export trade helped to underpin weanling demand during the back end of the year.

A good beef price also saw beef finishers hungry for cattle around mart rings during autumn 2022. For the first time ever the top 33% of weanlings across all weight categories hit over €3/kg, which is a remarkable feat for the full calendar year’s figures.

There could be an argument that weanling prices haven’t kept up with input price increases seen on suckler farms.

The top 33% of weanlings in the most popular weight category of 300-400kg came in 12c/kg higher in 2022.

The average weanling saw the same increase.

Weanling heifers

On the heifer side, the 300-400kg heifer was up 9c/kg in the top 33% and 8c/kg in the average category.

Weanlings over 400kg fared better, with price increases of 11-14c/kg seen across the board.

Average weanlings over 400kg saw one of the biggest increases at 14c/kg but this still only translates into a €60/head increase, not enough in light of the increased cost of production of these weanlings.

It will go down as a good year for marts, with an extra 70,000 cattle moving through cattle rings in 2022.

Marts have endured a tough couple of years, with COVID-19 causing huge upheaval. The last year was the first normal year’s trading without breakages since 2019 and it proved to be a good one.

The latest data from the Department of Agriculture for the first 10 months of the year shows the number of cattle traded in marts recorded at 1,569,805 head, an increase of 75,167 head, or 5%, while the number of animals presented in marts but not sold reduced by 14,074 head to 85,075.

In contrast the number of farm-to-farm movements recorded by the Department for the first 10 months of 2022 fell by 126,057 head, or 9.4%, to 1,212,457.